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Photo Source: Dalcy and Instagram
It’s no secret we need money to do many things, including travel. Finance is a subject that many travelers discuss whether it’s how to save for adventures or friendly budgeting tips that lets them roam the world. Dalcina, our Travel Crush, is no stranger to the topic. In fact, her love of travel helped her gain control of her finances and now through money coaching, she encourages women to not only meet their financial goals but also their traveling dreams. Proving that once again travel has a way of improving many areas of our lives.
1. Tell us about yourself! Who are you? Where are you from? What do you do? What inspires you to travel?
I’m Dalcina Duval, born and raised in Haiti but now living in Boston. I’m a 26 years old MBA grad, working in the tech industry doing project management. I love to travel, and I love helping women travel more.
I moved to the U.S. 11 years after the 2010 earthquake. Moving to the U.S. was such a culture shock for me, especially when it came to money. I had to watch my mother work laborious jobs to put food on the table and pay rent, and this broke my heart. I quickly had to find ways to help her out. But I found myself doing the same thing she was doing; working hard for money and living paycheck to paycheck. I needed a new perspective on life. I needed to break out from the patterns. I had done everything I was told to do but still nothing was different. I went to school and got my degree, I had two jobs, yet I could barely save $500 after paying bills. I needed to be somewhere else because I felt like I was suffocating.
I remember graduating college and buying the first under $400 Google flight I found, which was to Iceland. I quickly booked my flight and packed my bag. That was my first international trip, and it was solo. There I realized how big the world is with so many opportunities, dreams and more. I no longer felt stuck, the sky was truly the limit. I was a tourist like all other tourists, no one cared about how much money I had as long as I could pay for transportation, lodging, and food.
I remember hanging out with some young entrepreneurs and their view on money was mind blowing; they talked about it openly. I realized the main reason I felt stuck when it came to money was because we never talked about it in my family. As long as I had food and clothes, I never asked questions, and no one told me anything.
2. How do you combine your career in Money Coaching with your passion for travel? How does it manifest itself?
Traveling helped me find my purpose in life and it helped me learn about myself and the world around me. I dreamed of the day when I could afford to travel the world. I thought I would need to work and save until I was 50 to be able to do that. Then my first trip made me realize how needing thousands of dollars to travel is a self-limiting belief.
Once I realized my passion revolves around traveling, I started incorporating everything in my life with it, especially my finances. I started creating new money systems for myself to help manifest money in my life and eliminate self-limiting beliefs that were keeping me stuck. I went from “can I travel?” to “how am I going to travel.” I started off with budget friendly and affordable trips. To me changing my whole career path to be able to afford my travels and having side hustles made a huge difference. In the process I literally increased my income to almost 50% year after year. I allowed my final decisions to be driven by my passion.
I know other women would benefit from knowing about these mindset switches and systems I used, so I wanted to share them, from one former broke woman to another. My goal with money coaching is to help women get out of their own way and get the bag so they can create the life they desire and travel the world.
3. To your Money Mindset clients, what is your advice to them concerning travel?
I often tell my clients to not listen to anyone who tells them not to worry about money when it comes to travel because that’s not useful and can be harmful to their financial progress.
I tell my clients to think about money when it comes to travel, and don’t travel if they can’t afford it. I advise them to create opportunities for themselves so they can afford to travel with little to no financial hiccups. I promote having no debt, no huge credit cards bills, and not stressing about what bosses will say if they call out. Maybe that will encourage them to create more streams of income or change from a limited time off job to unlimited PTO job, or get a job that pays more, or even start a business.
4. What is your #1 travel tip that everyone should know but a lot of people don't?
My number one travel tip is to book directly with companies; the one where your money is going, send it there directly. No middleman.
People tend to use third party booking sites to book their flights and hotels. Sometimes those services only save you a few bucks; but with so many things that can potentially go wrong with your trips, those few bucks can cost you hundreds later on.
When booking your hotel directly with the hotel companies you often have up to 24 hours before check in to cancel your stay with no penalty, and can even cancel after the 24 hour deadline in case of an emergency. When you book your flight directly you have higher chance to get disputes resolved faster in case of a flight cancellation.
On the other hand, if you book through a third party site, they might have you contact them first which can be frustrating and they might not have the same accommodations. For example, my connecting flights with Turkish airline got delayed back in December 2021, I ended up missing the other flights. Since we booked directly with the airline in less than 30 mins, we were able to get new flights the next day, with a shuttle bus to take us to our hotel where we got free dinner and breakfast. If we booked with a third party service things could have been the same but it was nice knowing we were dealing with one company and not having to do all the back and forth.
If you really hate having to book stuff separately, you can book bundles directly from your airline company or your hotel. Those are usually reliable and have great relationships with the companies they choose to have bundle deals with.
5. If you had to stay in one place forever, which destination would you choose and why?
If I had to stay in one place forever it would be Portugal and I have plans to relocate there one day. Portugal has everything a travel enthusiast is looking for, adventure, food, music, history, art, and good people.
Where else can folks find you?6. Where can folks find you other than Instagram?
They can find me on my website which is currently going under a revamp but will be added to my IG profile soon.
Here are some more of our favorite travelers and their gorgeous shots.
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